Lana Del Ray is known for her melancholic pop songs such as “Video Games” and “Summertime Sadness.” But what did she do before becoming a renowned pop star?
Lana Del Ray was born and raised in the state of New York. She spent a year of her teenagehood working as a waitress in Long Island. She began performing in New York clubs when she was 18. While at college she recorded two EPs and secured a recording contract in her final year.
Let’s take a look at how Lana Del Ray managed to achieve stardom in the music industry at a young age.
The Beginnings of Lana Del Ray
Lana Del Rey, whose real name is Elizabeth Woolridge Grant was born on June 21, 1985, in Manhattan, New York City. Her parents, Robert England Grant, Jr., worked as a copywriter, and Patricia Ann as an account executive at the same company as her husband.
Lana, along with her younger brother and sister were raised as Roman Catholics. When she was a year old, the family moved out of the City and into the town of Lake Placid in Uptown New York.
Lana attended St. Agnes School in her elementary years and was introduced to singing by performing in the church choir. Later in life, she attended the same high school where her mother once taught for a year.
Lana was sent away to a boarding school—Kent School—when she was 15 years old because she got involved in underage drinking.
Her uncle, who worked as an admissions officer at the boarding school, managed to get the young Lana financial aid, so the family could afford the education.
Lana discussed having difficulty making friends in her teenage years. She talked about being preoccupied with death and facing an existential crisis: “When I was very young I was sort of floored by the fact that my mother and my father and everyone I knew was going to die one day, and myself too.”
She continued, “I had a sort of a philosophical crisis. I couldn’t believe that we were mortal. For some reason that knowledge sort of overshadowed my experience. I was unhappy for some time. I got into a lot of trouble. I used to drink a lot. That was a hard time in my life.”
After graduating from high school, Lana lived with her aunt and uncle for a year on Long Island and worked there as a waitress.
While living with the couple, her uncle taught her how to play guitar. She “realized [that she] could probably write a million songs with those six chords.”
Back in New York, Lana started writing songs and performing in nightclubs in the city. She used various stage names, such as “Sparkle Jump Rope Queen” and “Lizzy Grant and the Phenomena.”
Reflecting on the beginnings of her career, Lana noted, “I was always singing, but didn’t plan on pursuing it seriously.”
She continued, “When I got to New York City when I was eighteen, I started playing in clubs in Brooklyn—I have good friends and devoted fans on the underground scene, but we were playing for each other at that point—and that was it.”
Some older pics of the sultry singer
The Making of a Popstar
Lana began studying at Fordham University in The Bronx, in 2004. While at college, she recorded the EPs titled Rock Me Stable and From the End and an acoustic album titled Sirens.
Lana commented on the highly creative time in her life: “I wanted to be part of a high-class scene of musicians. It was half-inspired because I didn’t have many friends, and I was hoping that I would meet people and fall in love and start a community around me, the way they used to do in the ’60s.”
Lana scored her first public performance in 2006, at the Williamsburg Live Songwriting Competition. She then submitted an acoustic demo to 5 Points record company and was offered a contract for $10,000.
Her Big Break
Lana recorded and uploaded self-produced music videos for songs “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans” to the video sharing platform YouTube, in 2011.
The videos went viral and led to the artist being offered a life-changing deal with Stranger Records.
Watch the self-written and self-edited video for “Video Games”: